Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!uakari!xanth!ames!ncar!ico!auto-trol!marbru
From: marbru@auto-trol.UUCP (Martin Brunecky)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: XView v. other toolkits, advice wanted
Message-ID: <744@auto-trol.UUCP>
Date: 25 Feb 90 02:35:01 GMT
References: <22697@mimsy.umd.edu> <7150@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <495@med.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: marbru@auto-trol.COM (Martin Brunecky)
Organization: Auto-trol Technology, Denver
Lines: 44

In article <495@med.Stanford.EDU> rick@hanauma.UUCP (Richard Ottolini) writes:
>Our group decided to use either Xview or InterViews for the main
>reason is that they are entirely in public domain and run well ...
>First, history shows that public domain packages, UNIX (early AT&T, GNU C++)
>and X Windows win out over their possibility superior competitors
>(VMS, Objective C, NeWS) because academic hackers evolve them and write
>useful applications for them.
>
( complaints about OSF buerocracy deleted )
>
>It is still early.  Our research group's funding is 90% industrial (Big Oil)
>which has nearly unanimously embraced Motif.

	What does it mean "embraced Motif" ?  Are we talking Motif Style
	Guide OR it's first implementation, distributed by OSF ?

	My feeling is that most companies endorse Motif STYLE/LOOK, for
	the simple sake of ENDING the user interface battles. But I am
	firmly convinced, that if someone puts into a PUBLIC DOMAIN a toolkit
	compliant with Motif Style Guide ( preferably Xt based, but even
	that may not be a requirement), we have a definitive winner.

	In fact, there is nothing magic about Motif. About  30 widgets
	plus bunch of support and convenience routines. Most of the Motif
	widgets aren't any miracles.
	So why not EVOLVE something like Xaw into Motif Style Guide
	compliant tooolkit ? The functionality requirements are given,
	the technology is known, and here is an opportunity to avoid
	Motif implementation flaws and come up with a toolkit which
	not only has a widely accepted look and feel, but which is also
	OPEN - i.e. allows ANYBODY to improve/add functionality, new
	widgets etc.

	An alternative to Xt based toolkit is C++ (see for example
	Solbourne OI). My personal preference, however, is Xt. I really
	like the concept of resource database and many, many other
	features ( the more I work with Xt, the more I like it - thank
	you, Joel, Paul, Ralph and others ). Plus, you can use Xt based
	toolkit from many languages, not just C or C++ only.
-- 
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Martin Brunecky                   marbru@auto-trol.COM
(303) 252-2499                    {...}ncar!ico!auto-trol!marbru
Auto-trol Technology Corp. 12500 North Washington St., Denver, CO 80241-2404